


come here and stay a little

by kaipou



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Angst, Best Friends, Dorms, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 08:22:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16828756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaipou/pseuds/kaipou
Summary: donghyuk thought mark was a dream. a dream that was left shattered.





	come here and stay a little

“So you are leaving?” Donghyuk asked only to get Mark shrug as a response. “I mean just like that?” It wasn’t a question, more like a statement he made which he couldn’t believe it himself. Mark was just stuffing his messily folded clothes in his bag lazily, Donghyuk’s words bouncing off him. Mark had been hearing the same words from the day he had announced that he was leaving school. Donghyuk along with his dorm mates, was being persistent, demanding answers every time he they had met him.

Mark couldn’t form the words, the reason behind his sudden departure from the dorm or school for that matter. He didn’t want to stay confined inside the grayish walls off the school, feeding himself of words he couldn’t help but read off monotonously. He felt almost at lost, finding himself running inside the same maze over and over again.

But the time he was there, he did well. He was proud, he deemed, patting himself on the shoulder when he took the decision firmly. When all was done and prepared, all he had was to convince his friends. The ones who were there from the start through the end. Mark was helpless.

Donghyuk and co. were his juniors, to introduce. A class late, they were. Mark had met them when Donghyuk was assigned as his dorm mate. When Mark had met the tanned boy of 14, Donghyuk’s first impression was painted as an annoying pest. Touchy feely, the boy always asked Mark for a hug when they called off their night and woke him up with his high notes.

However, Mark never denied Donghyuk of what he wanted. Instead, sometimes he gave extra care when he tucked Donghyuk under his blankets or other days perhaps left him a snack or two. They grew close, despite the few arguments they had, since they knew they understood each others’ flaws the most.

A summer after Donghyuk and Mark was assigned as dorm mates, Mark soon found himself surrounded by classmates of Donghyuk’s one evening. They were a year younger or two, but still was fun to hang out nevertheless. On their first meetings, they were very polite and one of them, a guy of average height named Jeno, also wanted to learn English from him. Mark didn’t brush him off, but proposed another time or day to teach and learn.

Jeno was polite enough to agree.

However, as days went by, the group of boys became more rowdy to hang out with. Embarrassing Mark of suddenly on public events and pulling pranks of sorts, Mark became tired of leading them. It was not Mark’s duty to do so, but being the eldest it became a nature to shut them up or else they become too noisy. At the end of the day, unexpectedly, they weren’t too bad or too tiring at all, when they snuck out to the roof of their dorm to celebrate on small stuffs.

Whether it was the younger ones, Jisung and Chenle, passing with a safe grade or whether it was Renjun failing (unexpectedly although comically).

While they laughed, talked silently as they stared at the galaxies above their head, Mark couldn’t help but look at them, with a glint of fondness reflected in his eyes. He smiled to himself as he thought how much time will those scenes hold?

There was a small squeeze on his shoulders as those anxious thoughts washed away, yet not clearly. When he looked back, the tanned boy only looked at him and mirrored the small expression that Mark had. He mouthed something,under the light of the stars glittering above.

__A dream of forever._ _

Mark didn’t quite understand, but the phrase somewhat washed all his worries away. He looked away and focused on the vast sky above. There was a feeling on one corner of his heart, that he might had heard that phrase somewhere. But where?

Fast forward through the days of exams and tired souls, small sobs and loud laughter, Mark found himself packing his bags up after spending 2 years with the clique. All the others were quite upset, not able to accept that he was leaving after all. The most hurt was the boy Mark had been sharing his dorm with, Donghyuk.

Donghyuk, continued asking his the same questions again and again until he grew exhausted. It didn’t make a difference and Donghyuk gave up, knowing that. He didn’t talk to Mark for days, even though the others persisted him to. Jaemin cried, bawling that the it was Mark’s last time and it was to bid him farewell and not kick him out coldly. Donghyuk was stubborn, not inching from his standpoint a bit.

A tear drop fell from the corner of his eyes, as he watched Jaemin sob.

“I don’t want him to leave.” He whispered. He clutched the end of his sweater tighter.

A dream that was supposed to be forever.

Mark had watched it unfold all, as he stayed hidden behind the door opened slightly ajar. Mark was upset of how things had turn out, but he could not go back on his decision just like that. Seeing their friend cooped up in their dorm room, crying about Mark’s sudden leave, honestly wavered Mark’s stance. If things weren’t the way the way they were, Mark would have probably stayed. Actually, not probably, he would have definitely stayed.

However, when Mark backed by a step or two, leaving the door just like that, tears helplessly stained his cheeks. It was not still believable, the room that used to be filled with laughter and that night it was filled with useless tears. It was someway or another, Mark’s fault.

He didn’t enter his room for that night, as his legs carried him to the terrace. Mark laid his back against the small worn-out coach, his eyes was met the dark painting above, absent of any glitters. The clouds covered the sky in hopeless gray, which tinged Mark’s heart a little, because he had the accompany of no one.

It was as if his mind was read, Mark felt someone shift beside him. When he diverted his eyes from the sky to focus on that particular someone, he found Donghyuk snuggle a bit closer to him. Mark didn’t mind, as their shoulders brushed a little since it was comfortable for them.

Mark returned to stare at the sky as Donghyuk did too.

“When are you leaving?” Mark noticed how Donghyuk’s voice quivered a little, but he pretended he didn’t hear the implied sorrow.

“A little more of a day after.” Mark replied.

“oh.” Donghyuk perhaps contemplated something before continuing, “ You know, the first time , you came, you were so shy and so naive that you made me adore you so much.”

“Really?” Mark had no idea, why Donghyuk had suddenly bought up the matter of old stories but Mark didn’t mind.

“Uh-huh.” Donghyuk nodded as a soft smile hovered his lips. “You were so easy to be fooled, so I played prank on you everyday. You remember the time you found your underwear wet after you returned from shower?”

“Don’t tell me…” Mark replied, in shock.

“It was me, of course.” Donghyuk laughed. “I can’t believe that you couldn’t figure out who did it even after realizing that I was in your room. Stupid, you were.”

“Stupid, I am. But you almost made yourself too innocent.” Mark sighed.

“But, after that, I did awfully bad on an exam that I was almost at my lowest point. But you saved me, you know.” Mark’s stomach coiled to an unknown feeling. He still remembers the day when Donghyuk gave up on eating and cried to sleep everyday. “You gifted me a small napkin of yours, to wipe off my tears. It was a small yellow one, with ‘FULLSUN’ knitted on the bottom. There was a small quote too, ‘a dream of forever’ and the words stuck with me ever since.”

“Oh.” Mark didn’t know what to say but honestly it pained him too, watching Donghyuk talk so nice of him. Mark didn’t claim himself as Donghyuk’s best friend or anything but after all this he could definitely see himself as someone a little more close than just a best friend.

“After that, I looked up to you as ‘dream’ of mine since everything you did seemed so inspiring. Even though, you had club activities outside school, you still remained to score so well and yet had time for our stupidities. So I thank you, for being someone, that I could look up to.”

Mark didn’t utter anything, and observed the comfortable silence. If anything, he was overwhelmed by the words said by the latter. He didn’t know what he meant for the others but what they meant for him. In the end, he thought of himself above the others and he regretted that.

Mark turned toward the others who curled himself by his side. Mark remained expressionless as he threw his arms and wounded the other in his embrace.

“Let me go, for a while.” Mark whispered as he held the sobbing boy in his arms. “I’ll be back before you know it, right?”

Donghyuk nodded and snuggled a little closer to his chest.

If Mark could, he would have protected him a little more.

They slept like that until the wee hours of the morning, when Mark opened his eyes, the sky appeared as a vibrant aqua calming him. He let go of his arms from the curled up boy before he sat up, breathing in the cold air of the morn.

He took a last look at Donghyuk, who was far in his dreamland to notice the tears that whelmed his eyes. Mark took his phone out, texting the others about their whereabouts and informed them to meet at the terrace. Jeno and Jaemin, who did stay in the dorm, promised that they would be there in a matter of 5. Mark thanked him and shut his phone off.

Giving Donghyuk’s forehead a chaste kiss, he walked up to the exit and did not look back.Perhaps, he muttered a ‘miss you’ but it was unheard and forgotten.

When Donghyuk opened his eyes, Mark was staring at nothing at particular. Donghyuk wanted to call him but he thought he was better off pretending to be asleep. Donghyuk stared at him for a while, before he closed his eyes again, slowly drifting to slumber. He felt the feeling of lips meeting his forehead, which he savored for that particular moment before that feeling of love was gone.

“miss you.” he muttered, as the door was shut, leaving him alone and without a dream.

**Author's Note:**

> go ahead and cry for a while. (1)


End file.
